1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to oven assemblies and in particular to means for providing forced air cooling of oven assemblies.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For improved operation of ovens, such as domestic cooking ovens, it has been conventional to provide forced air cooling means. Illustratively, George B. Long shows, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,860,026, an electronic oven having a fan for drawing room air around the power tube, wave guide and electronic apparatus to cool the same and return the thusly warmed air to the room. The air is drawn in by the fan through an inlet below the oven and circulated past the apparatus outwardly of the oven cavity and is then discharged through a front opening at the top of the oven cavity.
Leonard Velander, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,261, shows a microwave oven construction having a first duct connected to a source of pressurized air and arranged to exhaust air to the exterior of the oven. A second duct communicates between the cooking cavity in the oven and the first duct so as to provide aspiration of the air from the cooking cavity.
Kenneth E. Rawald et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,067, show a forced air cooling and ventilating system for a self-cleaning oven wherein a heater control is provided interlocked with a fan to permit self-cleaning operation of the oven only when the fan means is operating. An air jacket is provided between the oven shell and a housing surrounding the shell with suitable venting openings provided therein to permit exhausting of the gases from the oven with the exhausting gases mixing with cool air from the outside of the oven.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,229, John W. Gilliom shows a built-in oven cooling system wherein the oven is supported in an outer casing through which a blower circulates ambient air with all of the flow in the casing being directed by baffling over the top front portions of the sidewalls of the oven. Exhaust products from the cooking cavity are conveyed through a duct exposed to the cooling air flow within the casing. The exhaust gases and cooling air are delivered through an upper outlet at the front of the oven and the cooling air is delivered to below the oven through an outlet also at the front of the oven.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,171 of Matthew S. Miller et al, an eye-level microwave oven is mounted on a subjacent stove having cooking burners disposed below the oven. A ventilation duct extends upwardly from the stove to the microwave oven to terminate either at the bottom or the back of the microwave oven as desired. The cooling air may be exhausted through openings at the top of the oven.